Tuesday, September 08, 2015

Ukrainian nationalists destroy tent city in Uman

As some of you might recall, I visited Uman two years ago, albeit not on Rosh HaShanna. Thousands of Jewish men spend Rosh HaShanna in Uman at the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. Many who cannot afford to rent apartments (there are few or no hotels) stay in tents. Over the Sabbath, the tent city that was erected for the visitors this coming week was destroyed by Ukrainian nationalists.

“On Shabbat, when they knew we wouldn’t be able to respond or
activate the communication device, they simply knocked down the fence,
pushed the light poles and security cameras, and caused damage estimated
at half a million dollars,” Eliezer Kirshboim, chairman and director of
the Jewish association in Uman, told the Israeli daily Yediot Acharonot. “We are approaching the High Holidays, and this disrupts all our work arrangements.”

Police officers did not intervene to stop the attacks, the newspaper reported, citing witnesses.

Since the fall of communism, Uman has seen the arrival of thousands
of pilgrims on the Jewish New Year who come to visit the gravesite of
the Breslover movement’s founder, Rabbi Nachman.

The pilgrimage often has created friction between the predominantly
Israeli new arrivals and locals, many of whom resent the cordoning off
by police of neighborhoods for the pilgrims.

Kirshboim said the mayor of Uman was “appointed” by members of the
nationalist Svoboda party following the revolution in Ukraine.

There's an election in October, and whoever harasses the Jews the most is likely to win.

1 Comments:

So these nationalists are on the Russian side? or the side of people who want to be with the Euros, which is what was elected before the breakdown? Or are they just crud stuck to everything, the old mental illness?

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About Me

I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com